Report: state should raise oil and gas tax

By: Spencer Hunt

The Columbus Dispatch - December 19, 2011 12:18 PM

Cleveland based think tank
Policy Matters Ohio says state
officials could raise millions to help balance the budget and offset public costs of an expected
shale energy boom if it raised taxes oil and gas companies pay.

In a new report it released today, Policy Matters researchers said the tax rate oil and gas
companies pay the state to take oil and gas from the ground is the lowest among neighboring states
and that Ohio ranks 25th out of 35 states that collect these taxes. It should be noted that
Pennsylvania where a drilling boom is currently underway, doesn't have a severance tax on natural
gas.

Raising the severance tax rate to 5 percent, equal to the rates charged by Michigan and West
Virginia, would raise more than $500 million from 2012 to 2015, the group claims. You can read
their report
by clicking here.